


A Different Way

by reylotraash



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), POV Rey (Star Wars), Post-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Wars: The Force Awakens Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-14
Updated: 2016-07-21
Packaged: 2018-07-24 01:41:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7488408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reylotraash/pseuds/reylotraash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where a lonely scavenger girl, susceptible to temptation, instead chooses to learn the ways of the Force through the Dark Side. Betrayal and guilt aren't the only new feelings she experiences on her journey towards power.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One.

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Ghost of Another Choice](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5532722) by [ms_qualia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ms_qualia/pseuds/ms_qualia). 



Bitter, wet, and dimming. If one had to use three words to describe the "planet" on that day, those would be the ones. The First Order was harnessing the power of the planet's sun, pulling it slowly into oblivion to use it in the destruction of the Resistance.

Light had surely been fading away bit by bit. The superweapon the First Order had constructed was enough to obliterate entire systems. And now, that enormous amount of power was being focused at one location. During this time, several Resistance pilots had tried with all their power to halt the destruction of their precious base that was galaxies away, shooting relentlessly at the weapon to try to find a chink in its armor, but now, they had succeeded.

Thanks to help from a certain Wookie, the planet was rendered useless, making it impossible to launch the weapon. The air had gotten even colder with the sun going out, which didn't help much, considering the fact that Starkiller Base was an ice planet.

Tiny white snowflakes had started falling. The temperature dropped at least forty degrees in mere minutes, and the snow melting around the burning weapons Rey and Kylo Ren were carrying made the situation ten times less endurable.

The fiery hot lightsabers the two of them held struck tree branches that fell down into the burning core of the planet, adding to the chaos they were experiencing. Every snow pile they stepped in was a risk of their lives with the planet shattering all around them. The next twig that fell, or one wrong step, could very well mean an end to one's story.

Soon, Rey found herself standing over an edge. The ground had given way, and the heat from the planet's core was wafting up into the cold, dark night. It was subtle, but the warmth could be felt by Rey, who was struggling not to fall off the edge. Kylo Ren had her cornered.

"You need a teacher!" The man shouted at her over the roaring of the planet decaying. "I could show you the ways of the Force!"

Hesitantly, Rey thought his words over in her head. "The Force?" she asked out loud. The scavenger girl looked up at the figure clothed in black in front of her. "Is that what I can feel?"

Ren slowly nodded, unsure of what she would do next. He knew, at the least, that the planet had about twenty seconds until full implosion. They needed to wrap this up, and fast. He could feel Rey's force on his lightsaber reluctantly lightening up. Confused, he searched her eyes, trying to predict her next action. He did likewise, until the two of them had eventually sheathed their weapons. Ren thought for a moment, and then held out his hand.

Rey looked at him skeptically, and then reached out to take it. Suddenly, the roaring sound of the planet around them grew deafening. Rey sensed from the Force a millisecond before that she was not on steady ground. She tried to move to safety, but the soil gave way underneath her. A gasp hitched in her throat as she shut her eyes and prepared for the worst. 

But oddly, she wasn't falling anymore. The girl thought that perhaps she had already died, and was at peace. Reluctantly, she opened one eye, and found that a black-gloved hand was holding her by the wrist. She opened both eyes, and saw a sliver of a black figure connected to the hand trying to pull her back from the edge of the planet's floor.

Rey struggled to reach the edge with her other hand and assisted in pulling herself up. She felt the urge to lie down on the ground and take a breather for a second, but there wasn't anytime for that. Despite the time crunch, she looked into Kylo Ren's eyes once again, astounded. "You . . . you saved me . . . ?" she asked in disbelief.

Her savior returned her glance with an intense stare. After a moment of contemplation, he responded, "Well, you can't go off dying before I have the chance to kill you," as if it was an old inside joke between the two of them.

A light that Rey knew as none other than the Millennium Falcon flickered unstably through the trees. They had seconds before Starkiller Base imploded into oblivion. She looked towards Finn lying on the snow covered ground, unconscious, then back up to Ren. With luck, Chewie hadn't seen the two of them in the forest yet. "If I come with you," she yelled over the roar of the crumbling "planet" around them, "can you promise that Finn will make it onto that ship safely?" Rey gestured to the Millennium Falcon.

The man peered at the ship, and thought it over. He could easily move the figure. He'd demonstrated that he could do that multiple times with the woman standing in front of him, even launching her back at a tree in what felt like an eternity ago, but was only mere minutes. He'd honestly felt that he might have overreacted at that time. He had to show her that he could be trusted, even if he couldn't. "Alright. But be ready to move quickly. This planet is ready to go," he warned.

Using the Force, Kylo Ren raised Finn's limp body, and set him in the ship. "You will leave the planet. You could not find the girl," he mumbled, filling the wookie's head with the thought.

Chewie shook his head and reluctantly pulled the Millennium Falcon up, warping into the night. 

Instantly, Ren turned to Rey and pointed the opposite way. "Go, now!"

Rey followed the path he had gestured to and started running. She could hear his footsteps right behind her. This was where things would get interesting.


	2. Two.

"To the left!" Rey heard the gruff voice shout to her over the roar of the planet crumbling beneath them.

She followed his instruction, panting heavily. The last time she remembered running from her impending death like this was back on Jakku with . . . Finn. An overwhelming sense of guilt struck her, forcing her to slow her pace.

Ren quickly caught up with her, yelling, "Look alive! You'll die if you stop!"

The command jolted Rey back to reality as she suppressed her feelings. She would regard them at a later time when she wasn't on the verge of exploding. The black-clad man was in front of her now, and she was thankful that he was at least leading the way so she didn't have to follow his instructions blindly. But, something wasn't right.

"The base isn't this way!" She didn't know how she could tell, but she just knew. She would later recognize the feeling as the Force.

"We don't have enough time to make it to the base! There's a ship over here, covered strategically so that the Resistance would not find it, and would be a mean of escape, should the time have come that the First Order would need to use it. Well, obviously that time has come. No more questions!" He shouted back to her.

Sure enough, a lump loomed up in front of the two allies that would not have been noticeable from up above, just as Kylo Ren had said, and the two of them rushed on board.

Kylo, having had a bit of formal training in piloting, knew the gist of what he was doing. Rey took in the layout of her surroundings and quickly set to work, familiar with the setup from parts of other Republic and Empire ship remains back on Jakku. The male was pleasantly surprised, but contained his emotion thoroughly as he had learned to do after his years of training with Supreme Leader Snoke.

The engines roared to life as Rey yelled over to the man. "Where are we going?!"

"I'll be the judge of that, now sit down!" He shouted back to her.

She whirled around to face him and shot him a glare. "I'm more than certain I have more piloting experience than you do!"

"That doesn't matter. I know what I'm doing." Suddenly, the gravity in the ship pulled Rey down to the floor as the ship thrust upwards into the galaxy. She shot him another glare. "I told you to sit down," Kylo Ren mumbled under his breath.


	3. Three.

"You have to cooperate," Kylo Ren reprimanded Rey.

"Easier said than done, master," she replied, spitting the name out. The girl was still unsure of her choice. What would her friends think once they found out that she had joined the Dark Side? No, wait, she caught herself. This is a way that I can infiltrate the First Order. I'm doing this for that purpose. Nothing else.

Ren sensed a disturbance in the Force, but chose to ignore it for the time being. There were greater things at hand that had to be dealt with. "You have to focus harder than that."

"I could do it better if you weren't criticizing me every single second!" She snapped back at him. The frustrated female was training with Ren. The task she was currently struggling to achieve was an extension of what had taken place while she was bound in a chair back on Starkiller Base. The girl would have to build a figurative wall in her mind so as to guard the one thing she had the hardest time protecting.

"Good, use your anger to fuel your power," Ren commented.

Rey shot him a glare before closing her eyes to try again for the umpteenth time. This was getting real old really fast. It didn't help that he was probing her thoughts yet once again, but she had made some improvement with blocking him from her mind.

"Your parents," he started. "You miss them. They left you to by tended to by a disgusting merchant who didn't do that well from keeping you out of trouble." Ren sighed. "You have to do better than that. The image is only blurry around the outside. You can't get anywhere with that if you don't want people knowing your weaknesses."

Rey's eyes shot open once again. "Don't ever mention my parents. You know nothing about them."

"Ah, yes, but it seems . . . neither do you."

That one single statement stung the girl to her very bones. She stood up immediately, not taking her eyes off of the man clad in black. As much as she wanted to, she could not retort it. Instead, she turned on her heels and stormed out of the room.

Ren stood idly, not completely understanding the situation that had taken place. Yet, he suspected he had done something wrong.

Faces turned and gazes followed after the girl who could not be trusted. She was being trained under a commander of the First Order, but that didn't stop the suspicious looks passerby gave Rey as she rushed through the halls of the temporary base of the Order. She had been fighting with the Resistance only a few months ago, after all.

Finally, she burst through the doors of her living quarters recklessly and took a moment to catch her breath. How could he do that? She wondered. Rey knew that the training in the Dark side was intense and meant to get a rise out of you. The very core of it was to use your emotions to fuel your power, after all. Well, he had certainly gotten one out of her. She sat down on her bed and pulled her knees up to her chest, burying her head in between them.

She sat like that for a good ten minutes, calming herself down. She would've stayed in the position longer, had the door to her room not creaked open. The muscles inside of the girl tensed all at once as she heard the sound. Without even looking up, she suspected- No. She knew who it was. Because her sense of the Force had risen, Rey could detect who was standing in front of her. But because of her disbelief in her own power, she looked up anyway, just to confirm her theory. Her master was avoiding her glance, looking oddly guilty.

The two of them stayed in silence for a moment, before Ren cleared his throat. "I . . . I am not one who is good with . . . sincerity," he started, spitting the word out awkwardly. " . . . But I feel as though I may have . . . overstepped my boundaries, and I apologize for that."

Rey tried to pierce him with a confused gaze, but the man was still looking away from her. She decided to look down at the surface beneath her instead and reply to the rather odd apology. "Thank you, I suppose."

From her peripheral vision, Rey noticed him nod once and turn around to walk out of the door. However, he stopped before opening it. "When you wish to resume your training," he began. Pausing for a moment, he glanced back at her and the two of them met gazes. "You will find me in the training room." As soon as the last word left his mouth, he quickly pulled the door open and stepped out, while the door slid shut behind him satisfyingly.

Rey took a sliver of time deciphering what had just happened. Mere minutes later, she turned the handle to the training room door and found Ren exactly where he said he would be. The man looked up when he heard the door open, glad to see that she was back, though he did not show it.

The girl took in a deep breath and sighed, smiling expectantly at her master. "What's next?"


	4. Four.

Restless images stirring. Opinions and more yelled at one another incoherently. Then, a cold and dark feeling of remorse, a tinge of bitterness, and just a bit of fear came to rest in the mind of the figure. Bits and pieces of words and conversations shifted around in the head.

". . . Can't do it."

" . . . Not strong enough,"

" . . . Will betray us . . . ,"

These were enough to make Rey sit straight up in her bed. It was easy to feel that she was covered in beads of sweat. One would expect that from such a nightmare. Though her quarters were dark and cold, Rey was burning up. She slowly lifted herself off of the bed. The girl began to pace her room, trying to forget the images that had conjured up in her mind mere moments ago.

Did she dare look at the clock, and wonder how much longer she had to go through the agony of nightmares tonight? Screw it, she thought. She glanced over at the clock. The numbers read a little past three. So, she'd been asleep for about three hours.

Sighing, she grabbed a sheer robe from the corner of her quarters. Even though she was wearing shorts and a tank for sleepwear, she would like to be a little more covered up if she were coming out of her room, which she was.

Rey tiptoed to her door and waited for it to open. Silently, it slid to the right of her, and she poked her head out of the safety of her room, checking if there was anyone in the vicinity. Other than the chatter of the troopers throughout the halls who were on night watch, she did not detect anyone else coming or going from her location, so she slipped out of the doorway.

Hugging herself so as to keep a little bit warmer, she walked down the corridor. She wasn't used to the cold. After living on Jakku for as long as she could remember, she hadn't been exposed to cold weather anytime recently. She wished she had brought a blanket or something to wrap around her shivering frame besides the thin robe.

She didn't know where her feet were taking her, but she kept walking until she subconsciously stopped outside of a door. It looked unfamiliar. She glanced around, looking for any indicator of where she was. With no luck, she determined she might've been lost, but she did not start panicking yet. 

I can just ask one of the troopers to show me back to my room, she thought. She turned toward the chatter of the stormtroopers, but a fshh sound made her glance back behind her. The door she had been standing in front of slid back to reveal a groggy Kylo Ren who was rubbing his eyes. Hoping he hadn't seen her, Rey tried to silently make her way over to the stormtroopers. 

"I hope you know that the Force allows me to sense one's presence without looking at them," came a low voice from behind her, barely audible. Yet, it made her stop in her tracks. Cringing, she spun around to face her teacher.

"Of course I knew that, I . . . just didn't want to disturb you," she replied, avoiding his gaze.

A moment of silence passed between them as Kylo contemplated his student. "Something is troubling you," he claimed."

Rey looked up at this, astonished that he could tell. The Force truly was an amazing thing. But this didn't stop her from getting upset. "I've told you to get out of my head once, before."

"I was not in your head. It's easy to tell from your facial expression that something has upset you."

She looked away, not wanting to talk about it to someone like him. 

Ren sighed and asked, "Well, what brings you here at this time of night? Surely you weren't hoping for comfort from me."

The scavenger could not tell if he was teasing her, or being serious. She decided to ignore his last statement. "I couldn't sleep. I was exploring the base and ended up here. I didn't know this was your room." After another moment of silence, she turned so that her back was facing her teacher. "It's nothing. I think I'll be alright if I just try to sleep again. I'll stop bothering you." She started walking back in the general direction of her room, or she thought she was, at least.

After she rounded a corner and was sure Ren could not see her anymore, she stopped walking and leaned against the wall, sighing. This is going to be a long night.

Suddenly, Rey felt a source of warmth coming from behind her. She was about to turn around to find out who was there until she felt cool breath down her back. A gentle and unexpectedly familiar voice came from behind her, "You can't hide things from me. Not yet, anyway. Don't you remember what I told you on Starkiller?" Because of the unusual way the person behind her was acting, she could not be sure of who it was. Rey had an idea, but she didn't believe it. The next thing the person said confirmed her thoughts. "You. Need. A teacher."

Rey whirled around to face the man clothed in black. She didn't believe it. Somehow, right in front of her was none other than Kylo Ren. It didn't match up. This was a side of him she'd never seen before. He seemed . . . concerned for her? His expression showed concern, anyway. 

This is probably just a test. Then I'll prove him wrong, Rey thought. So she concentrated. She pushed him out of her mind, and tried to penetrate his own. As usual, there was a wall that could not be broken down. No figurative cracks in sight. She decided that she would work on that later. The girl opened her eyes and found that Kylo Ren was staring straight at her.

"You are my teacher, and only my teacher," she said, getting on the defensive again. "Don't pretend like you know what I'm going through!" With that, she stormed off, leaving a confused Kylo Ren staring after her.


	5. Five.

"I don't know what you want from me. You've already taught me many things, there couldn't possibly be any more to teach me," Rey stated harshly as she sat down in a chair, huffing.

The two had been sparring until, once again, Kylo had struck her down. She had improved much, of course. That much was apparent. When she had first come to the new base and started training with Kylo, they lasted about two minutes before he defeated her. Now they were up to twenty.

"You have indeed improved a great deal, but there is always room for more improvement," Kylo Ren replied.

"I didn't think you were the mantra-type," the student remarked. "Just the invasive type," she added under her breath.

Although he hadn't heard it, the man had felt her jab through the force. Kylo unsheathed his lightsaber and held the tip up to her just as he had done so long ago on Takodana. "This is why you still need training. If you were more in tune with the force, you would've seen this coming and been able to deflect it."

Instead of being intimidated as she had then, she stood up to face him now. "Well, maybe I didn't want to defend myself. Did you think about that?" Rey knew she was acting childish, but she did not care. If he could act immature whenever he wanted to (and she had seen that happen), then why couldn't she do it as well every once in a while?

Slowly, her teacher inched closer to her, one step at a time. When Rey realized this, she backed up to try to keep the distance between them the same, though he kept walking towards her. "So if someone were to strike a blow against you that could potentially end your life, what would happen to you if you 'didn't want to defend yourself?'" Kylo countered as he sheathed his lightsaber.

Try as she might, Rey could not come up with a valid answer to his question. She attempted again but realized that she had run out of space to back up to. Unintentionally, she stopped against the wall of the training room, yet Kylo Ren was still advancing.

She frantically searched for words, anything. "I-I would be able to react fast enough if something like that were to happen. My reaction time has decreased since I began my training, you know that."

"No doubt about that. In association with fighting, at least," Kylo agreed. 

Rey had always thought he was more intimidating with his mask on than with it off. Now, she wasn't so sure of herself anymore. His scarred expression caused more anxiety for her than it would've if she had been staring at his mask instead, but they were both aware that it was long gone, swallowed up in the destruction of Starkiller Base. 

Rey could feel her heartbeat growing faster with every step closer he took towards her, as if she were anticipating something. But . . . anticipating what? An unexpected strike from his lightsaber? Yes, that must be it. She would show him that she was quick on her feet, and that she would be ready for his hit.

Suddenly, the words of his registered in her mind, and her face took on a confused expression. She looked up at her teacher, who was now directly in front of her, about two feet away. "I . . . I don't understand." 

"Rey," he spoke her name tentatively, as if testing it out. He placed his left hand on the wall behind her. "Surely even you are aware that combat is not the only thing you can be trained in."

She was taken aback by this, and also a bit offended, if she had to be honest. Rey scoffed at his statement and leaned against the wall. "Of course I know that. I'm not that stu-,"

Kylo Ren had definitely produced an unexpected strike. But it was nowhere near what Rey had been mentally preparing herself for. She tried to make sense of things while her mind was spinning because the man clad in black had just pressed his mouth against hers. And he was still doing it. 

As much as she didn't want to, Rey found herself, what . . . enjoying this? His lips were inviting her to experience a new sensation she had never experienced before. Rey shut her eyes and decided to let it run its course. 

Gently, Kylo grasped her chin with his free hand, and Rey obliged, inclining her head to a more comfortable position for the pair of them. "Ben . . . ," she subtly whispered.

Promptly, Kylo Ren pulled back, the both of them looking at each other in surprise while catching their breath. "How do you know of that name?" He seethed.

At a loss for words, Rey stumbled in her sentence. "Ah . . . H-Han, he shouted it on Starkiller back then . . ." She realized as soon as she had said it that it was a mistake.

Trying to stay calm, Kylo raised one finger and pointed it at her. "Don't ever mention him or that name again." And with that, he stormed out of the training room, leaving Rey's gaze following after him before she slid down the wall until she was sitting on the floor, where she put her head in her hands to contemplate the event that had just taken place.


	6. Six.

Yet again, Rey had a restless night. But this time, it wasn't because of the extreme dreams she had been having. Thanks to Kylo Ren, she was more confused than ever. He had _kissed_ her completely out of the blue. Or maybe it wasn't out of the blue. Rey didn't have experience in this type of thing, and even if she did, it was nowhere near enough to be able to tell the "signs" that came before something like that happened. So for now, it was safe to say that it was out of the blue, in Rey's opinion, at least.

She decided to get out of bed and walk around again, though this time, it would be just around her quarters. She didn't want a repeat of what had happened last time she had wandered around the base, especially not right now. Moments later, she found herself pacing back and forth, her head whirling with the thought of the day's occurrences still fresh and embedded in her mind. How was she going to face him tomorrow? Perhaps she could just stay in her quarters. She knew it wouldn't be effective for long, but it could be worth a shot. 

Somehow, the movement calmed her down. She slowed her brisk walk to a leisurely one, unfolding her arms that had been keeping her warm while attempting to process her mind. It got cold on the base at night, after all. She recalled that if she meditated, she might even be able to calm herself down even more, so Rey sat herself down on the surprisingly always-clean floor and crossed her legs.

Deep breath in, deep breath out. The focus of meditation was to be able to feel the Force coursing throughout your veins and your whole body. If you could focus on that one sole objective for an extended amount of time, it would help you forget about everything else, at least for a while. Since the only people moving around the base and creating noise were the sentries, Rey had a much easier time with blocking out the noise and it made her meditation much more effective.

A knock at the door resounded throughout her quarters and jolted Rey out of her practice. She looked toward it, wondering if it had just been her imagination. Why would a stormtrooper be knocking at her door at this time of night? Rey waited, and sure enough, another knock followed the brief moment of silence. She stood up and walked over to the door which slid open at the motion of her stopping in front of it, revealing a conflicted-looking Kylo Ren. Rey's breath hitched in her throat for a moment.

Ren averted his eyes and looked down, as if he were ashamed. He stayed like that for a few seconds before he took a deep breath and looked squarely at Rey. "I apologize, . . . I hope I didn't wake you," he hesitated. It seemed that admitting his apology was still hard for him, and he looked away again. "I also . . . apologize . . . for what happened in the training room." Ren looked at Rey once more, searching her eyes for any kind of response. He wouldn't search through the Force for answers about her anymore except for training purposes. It did not feel right to him. Still, she was as blank faced as she was when he got there. Again, he took a breath and nodded to himself. "Well, that is all I had to say. I'll let you get back to your sleep now," he stated as he turned to leave, but a barely audible "wait," stopped him from going. He looked back at Rey, whose expression was not blank anymore.

"You don't need to apologize for it," she uttered somehow at a lower tone than before, yet Kylo Ren could still hear it. Moments of silence passed between them before either spoke.

"I don't understand," the man replied. "What do you mean?"

With a sigh, Rey spoke. "I mean, it wasn't like you meant any harm in it," she stated, though there was a hint of a question to it.

"No, of course not," Ren assured her.

At this, she nodded and contemplated his statement for a second. Rey leaned forward. She hesitated, but she gave Ren a quick kiss on the cheek. "Goodnight, then," she whispered as she backed up and her door slid shut.


	7. Seven.

"Ren!" Rey shouted, pounding on her master's door. She was up bright and early. The few passerby that were unlucky enough to be up at this time of the day gave her strange looks and began discussing her tactics with each other after they passed the scene, but the girl did not care. "Ren, wake up! It's time to train!" 

She continued to rap on the door until it slid open and revealed yet again a very sleep-deprived and agitated Kylo Ren. After the door opened, Rey moved her hand over to the door frame and continued to knock, seemingly absentmindedly. With one swift movement, Ren grabbed her wrist and glared at her. "Since you seem so enthusiastic about knocking on things, why don't you 'knock it off?'"

Rey pulled her wrist free and smiled haughtily at him, proud of herself for effectively annoying him. "Good morning to you too, sunshine."

Since his apology some days ago, Rey observed that Ren had become increasingly cold to her whenever she was around. Instead of taking offense to it, she merely found new ways to push his buttons. Still, she was curious about the sudden change in his behavior and was intent on finding out what had caused it.

Ren groaned. "Whose bright idea was it to have a training session this early, again? There are many more important things I could be doing, like sleeping."

"It's not my fault that you stay up so late. You know my lessons start early in the morning," Rey replied. She glanced down towards her feet before she mumbled, "And it was your idea in the first place, anyway."

"How many times do I have to tell you that no matter how low you say something, the Force will allow anyone with the ability to manipulate it to sense those thoughts unless you shield them correctly."

The girl shot a look in his direction, and proceeded to dramatically proclaim, "Oh, woe is me! How will I ever learn to shield my thoughts properly? Oh, that's right, I have a teacher!" Rey faked happiness and threw her hands up in the air, and then suddenly pulled them back down. She glanced at the man in front of her again and locked gazes with him this time. "But wait! He doesn't teach me because he's a whiny little brat!"

Ren cocked an eyebrow at the girl as he stared her down. "Excuse me?" He emphasized.

She smirked and knew that she was about to get a rise out of him. She decided to continue further. "That's right, you heard what I said." Rey raised her voice even more until she was certain that everyone who was passing them in the corridor could hear her say, "Kylo Ren is a childish, temper-tantrum-throwing brat who thinks of no one but himself and the things that will benefit him!"

With that, the scavenger turned around and zoomed down to the training room, rushed inside, and used the force to slide the door closed and locked behind her. She hurriedly attempted to slow her breathing down, a task that had become much easier for her with the help of the Force.

A thud came from the other side of the door, and an exasperated sigh followed shortly after. "Rey, I'm not in the mood for this. You're lucky enough that I haven't dragged you off this ship after what you pulled back there. Open the door."

The girl contemplated this for a moment. "No. If you're the big shot that everyone makes you out to be, then you'll have little to no problem opening the door on your own." She already knew that he could do it with ease, and didn't even need proof of this. For some reason though, she wanted him to move it instead of her.

This time, it was the man that mumbled. "This is exactly why I make it a point not to teach children."

Rey scoffed at his remark. "I am not a child!"

Without her realizing, she had released her concentration on her hold on the door, and it slid open. Ren stalked through the doorway and looked around the room until his eyes rested on her. "Really? Because your previous actions seem to prove otherwise."

"Well, maybe I wouldn't be acting like such a 'child' if you stopped treating me like one!" Rey shouted indignantly. "I don't know if you know how recruiting works, but usually nicer tactics are good for advertisement, not the ones you use like talking down to people! If you wanted to order people around, you could've just as well have used one of your Storm Trooper lackeys! I didn't come here to be talked to like a droid, I came here to get control of my powers!"

Wherever her newfound protests came from, Rey did not know. She didn't usually talk like that to her teacher, mostly for the fact that she didn't know what would happen. She took the opportunity of the silent room to calm her breathing which had quickened due to her change in emotions and waited for a reaction from the man.

Exasperated, Ren strode over to a wall adjacent to his position and slumped against it, crossing his arms in front of him. He averted his piercing gaze from her and instead looked at the ground, surprised at himself that he wasn't lashing out at her at this exact moment.

The only noise in the room between the two of them, other than the slowing of Rey's breathing, was the artificial air vent whirring on. Several minutes passed before either of them made any noise.

To Rey's surprise, and to his own, Ren was the one to break the sustained tranquility. "I never thought I'd live to see the day that I would say this, but I find that your silence is much more irritating than your persistent nagging," the man tentatively spoke.

Rey gave a short, exasperated laugh. "Then perhaps I'll continue to sit here in silence. A little gift from yours truly."

"Did you hear anything I just said?" said Ren, his tone of voice dripping with annoyance.

The girl did not say anything but smugly looked over at him with eyebrows raised as if to sarcastically ask, "What was that?"

Ren tiredly rolled his eyes, stood up, and made his way to the door, stopping before walking out. "This has got to stop," he suggested, peering at her peripherally. "These mind games we play, they're taking a toll on both of us. It's time for this to end." With that, he stalked out of the room, leaving an incredulous Rey following after him with her gaze.


End file.
